What does adobe acrobat do and why should i buy it?

Answers

Best Answer: Adobe Acrobat is for creating and editing PDF.
BUT you can Create PDF/s with Word or Open Office. So you don't need the full version of Adobe Acrobat.
You can Read PDF's for Free with Adobe Reader, or Foxit Reader or your Web Browser.

(Note - for some very complex PDFs with special features like animation, OR for locked/protected/DRM PDFs such as some purchased or rented PDF schoolbooks, you will probably need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, not the simpler PDF viewer I prefer)

When I do want to create a PDF, I just create the document in another program and use a free PDF printer driver like CutePDF. This installs like a printer driver. Once installed, when you print, you can choose CutePDF as your destination printer and you document will be output as a PDF file instead of printing to a real printer.

On PC's, many programs can save a file as a PDF (like Word).
If you have a program that cannot create a PDF, you can get a free program, like CutePDF to print to a PDF. But beware this will create an unsearchable 'image' PDF. As a comparison, Adobe Acrobat can create a word-searchable PDF.

Adobe Acrobat can also take an image (like a TIF) and perform OCR to create a searchable PDF. You can choose to display the image, the text, or a hybrid. You can also assign password locks for viewing and editing.

Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software and Web services developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format (PDF). The family comprises Acrobat Reader, Acrobat and Acrobat.com.

Acrobat Reader is free. You can create PDF documents in many free apps.